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W.B. Yeats Quotes
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William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish literary establishment, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others.

Yeats was born in Sandymount, Ireland, and educated there and in London. He spent childhood holidays in County Sligo and studied poetry from an early age, when he became fascinated by Irish legends and the occult. These topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the 20th century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From 1900, his poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life. In 1923, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Wikipedia  

✵ 13. June 1865 – 28. January 1939
W.B. Yeats photo
W.B. Yeats: 255   quotes 283   likes

W.B. Yeats Quotes

“I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all — the colleges I mean — like an opera.”

W.B. Yeats

Letter to Katharine Tynan (25 August 1888)

People , Beauty , Dreams , Singing

“Only God, my dear,
Could love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair.”

W.B. Yeats book The Winding Stair and Other Poems

For Anne Gregory http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1483/, st. 3
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)

Love , God

“This other man I had dreamed
A drunken, vain-glorious lout.
He had done most bitter wrong
To some who are near my heart,
Yet I number him in the song;
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

St. 2
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/

Beauty , Dreams , Change , Heart

“Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great,
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?”

W.B. Yeats

No Second Troy http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1548/
The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910)

Men , Age , Peace , Beauty

“Mock mockers after that
That would not lift a hand maybe
To help good, wise or great
To bar that foul storm out, for we
Traffic in mockery.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

V, st. 4
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/

Help

“We and the labouring world are passing by:
Amid men's souls, that waver and give place
Like the pale waters in their wintry race,
Under the passing stars, foam of the sky,
Lives on this lonely face.”

W.B. Yeats

St. 2
The Rose (1893), The Rose of the World

Men , World , Soul , Star

“Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

St. 4.
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/
Context: I write it out in a verse—
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.

Beauty , Change , Time

“Under bare Ben Bulben’s head
In Drumcliff churchyard Yeats is laid.”

W.B. Yeats

Under Ben Bulben, VI
Last Poems (1936-1939)

“Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

Leda and the Swan http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1523/, st. 3
The Tower (1928)

Knowledge , Indifference

“They say such different things at school.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

Michael Robartes and the Dancer
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)

School

“The only business of the head in the world is to bow a ceaseless obeisance to the heart.”

W.B. Yeats

Letter to Frederick J. Gregg (undated, Sligo, late summer, 1886)

World , Business , Heart

“Now as at all times I can see in the mind’s eye,
In their stiff, painted clothes, the pale unsatisfied ones
Appear and disappear in the blue depth of the sky
With all their ancient faces like rain-beaten stones,
And all their helms of Silver hovering side by side,
And all their eyes still fixed, hoping to find once more,
Being by Calvary’s turbulence unsatisfied,
The uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.”

W.B. Yeats

The Magi http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1652/
Responsibilities (1914)

Hope , Appearance , Time , Painting

“If soul may look and body touch,
Which is the more blest?”

W.B. Yeats

The Lady's Second Song http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1639/, st. 3
Last Poems (1936-1939)

Soul

“All shuffle there; all cough in ink;
All wear the carpet with their shoes;
All think what other people think;
All know the man their neighbour knows.
Lord, what would they say
Did their Catullus walk that way?”

W.B. Yeats

The Scholars http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1682/, st. 2
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)

People , Shoe , Way , Thinking

“I agree about Shaw — he is haunted by the mystery he flouts. He is an atheist who trembles in the haunted corridor.”

W.B. Yeats

Letter to George William Russell (1 July 1921)

“Hurrah for revolution and more cannon-shot!
A beggar upon horseback lashes a beggar on foot.
Hurrah for revolution and cannon come again!
The beggars have changed places, but the lash goes on.”

W.B. Yeats

The Great Day http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1626/
Last Poems (1936-1939)

Change

“To be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
If there’s no hatred in a mind
Assault and battery of the wind
Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

St. 7
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), A Prayer For My Daughter http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1421/

Hate , Tear , Evil , Chance

“The true faith discovered was
When painted panel, statuary.
Glass-mosaic, window-glass,
Amended what was told awry
By some peasant gospeller.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

Wisdom http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1759/
The Tower (1928)

Faith , Painting

“I have met them at close of day
Coming with vivid faces
From counter or desk among grey
Eighteenth-century houses.
I have passed with a nod of the head
Or polite meaningless words,
Or have lingered awhile and said
Polite meaningless words.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

St. 1
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/

Housing

“My temptation is quiet.
Here at life’s end
Neither loose imagination,
Nor the mill of the mind
Consuming its rag and bone,
Can make the truth known.”

W.B. Yeats

An Acre of Grass http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1438/, st. 2
Last Poems (1936-1939)

Life , Truth , Imagination

“Their eyes mid many wrinkles, their eyes,
Their ancient, glittering eyes, are gay.”

W.B. Yeats

Lapis Lazuli, st. 5
Last Poems (1936-1939)

“The friends that have it I do wrong
Whenever I remake a song
Should know what issue is at stake,
It is myself that I remake.”

W.B. Yeats

The Collected Works in Verse and Prose of William Butler Yeats, II, preliminary poem (1908)

“I know what wages beauty gives,
How hard a life her servant lives,
Yet praise the winters gone:
There is not a fool can call me friend,
And I may dine at journey’s end
With Landor and with Donne.”

W.B. Yeats

To A Young Beauty http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1728/, st. 3
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)

Life , Beauty , Fools , Winter

“Man can embody truth but he cannot know it.”

W.B. Yeats

Letter to Lady Elizabeth Pelham (4 January 1939))

Truth

“Odour of blood when Christ was slain
Made all platonic tolerance vain
And vain all Doric discipline.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

II, st. 1
The Tower (1928), Two Songs From a Play http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1741/

Christ

“A bloody and a sudden end,
Gunshot or a noose,
For Death who takes what man would keep,
Leaves what man would lose.”

W.B. Yeats

John Kinsella’s Lament For Mrs. Mary Moore http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1520/', st. 1
Last Poems (1936-1939)

Death

“Does the imagination dwell the most
Upon a woman won or woman lost?”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

The Tower, II, st. 13
The Tower (1928)

Imagination

“Englishmen are babes in philosophy and so prefer faction-fighting to the labour of its unfamiliar thought.”

W.B. Yeats

Letter to Olivia Shakespear (24 March 1927)

Fight

“O what fine thought we had because we thought
That the worst rogues and rascals had died out.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

I, st. 2
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/

“Land of Heart's Desire,
Where beauty has no ebb, decay no flood,
But joy is wisdom, time an endless song.”

W.B. Yeats The Land of Heart's Desire

Source: The Land of Heart's Desire (1894), Lines 373–375

Wisdom , Beauty , Time , Heart

“Much did I rage when young,
Being by the world oppressed,
But now with flattering tongue
It speeds the parting guest.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

Youth And Age http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1762/
The Tower (1928)

World , Rage , Parting , Speed

“I had thought, seeing how bitter is that wind
That shakes the shutter, to have brought to mind
All those that manhood tried, or childhood loved
Or boyish intellect approved,
With some appropriate commentary on each;
Until imagination brought
A fitter welcome; but a thought
Of that late death took all my heart for speech.”

W.B. Yeats

In Memory Of Major Robert Gregory, st. 12
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)

Love , Death , Imagination , Heart

“Players and painted stage took all my love,
And not those things that they were emblems of.”

W.B. Yeats

The Circus Animals' Desertion http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1603/, II, st. 3.
Last Poems (1936-1939)

Love , Painting

“Nothing that we love over-much
Is ponderable to our touch.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

Towards Break of Day http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1740/, st. 3
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921)

Love

“Minute by minute they live:
The stone's in the midst of all.”

W.B. Yeats book Michael Robartes and the Dancer

St. 3
Michael Robartes and the Dancer (1921), Easter, 1916 http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1477/

“I knew a phoenix in my youth, so let them have their day.”

W.B. Yeats

His Phoenix http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1510/, refrain
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)

Youth

“Seek out reality, leave things that seem.”

W.B. Yeats book The Winding Stair and Other Poems

Source: The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933), Vacillation http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1751/, VII

Reality

“And God stands winding His lonely horn,
And time and the world are ever in flight;
And love is less kind than the grey twilight,
And hope is less dear than the dew of the morn.”

W.B. Yeats

Into The Twilight http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1519/, st. 4
The Wind Among the Reeds (1899)

Love , God , World , Hope

“This melancholy London. I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.”

W.B. Yeats

Letter to Katharine Tynan (25 August 1888)

Feeling , Soul , Imagination

“I have found nothing half so good
As my long-planned half solitude,
Where I can sit up half the night
With some friend that has the wit
Not to allow his looks to tell
When I am unintelligible.”

W.B. Yeats

The Apparitions, st. 2
Last Poems (1936-1939)

Solitude , Night

“You say, as I have often given tongue
In praise of what another's said or sung,
'Twere politic to do the like by these;
But was there ever a dog that praised his fleas?”

W.B. Yeats

To A Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators of His and Mine http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1724/
The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910)

Dogs

“Whence had they come,
The hand and lash that beat down frigid Rome?
What sacred drama through her body heaved
When world-transforming Charlemagne was conceived?”

W.B. Yeats

Parnell's Funeral and Other Poems http://worldebooklibrary.com/eBooks/WorldeBookLibrary.com/ytpafu.htm (1935). Supernatural Songs http://worldebooklibrary.com/eBooks/WorldeBookLibrary.com/ytpafu.htm#1_0_7

World

“O but we dreamed to mend
Whatever mischief seemed
To afflict mankind, but now
That winds of winter blow
Learn that we were crack-pated when we dreamed.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

III, st. 3
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/

Dreams , Affliction , Learning , Winter

“Dream, dream, for this is also sooth.”

W.B. Yeats

Source: Crossways (1889), The Song Of The Happy Shepherd, l. 57.

Dreams

“Come near, that no more blinded by man’s fate,
I find under the boughs of love and hate,
In all poor foolish things that live a day,
Eternal beauty wandering on her way.”

W.B. Yeats

To The Rose Upon The Rood Of Time
The Rose (1893)

Love , Hate , Fate , Beauty

“O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.”

W.B. Yeats

Brown Penny http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1454/
The Green Helmet and Other Poems (1910)

Love , Star , Thinking

“Some burn damp faggots, others may consume
The entire combustible world in one small room
As though dried straw, and if we turn about
The bare chimney is gone black out
Because the work had finished in that flare.
Soldier, scholar, horseman, he,
As ’twere all life’s epitome.
What made us dream that he could comb grey hair?”

W.B. Yeats

In Memory Of Major Robert Gregory http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1516/, st. 11
The Wild Swans at Coole (1919)

Life , World , Dreams

“Come let us mock at the great
That had such burdens on the mind
And toiled so hard and late
To leave some monument behind,
Nor thought of the levelling wind.”

W.B. Yeats book The Tower

V, st. 1
The Tower (1928), Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1547/

“Somewhere beyond the curtain
Of distorting days
Lives that lonely thing
That shone before these eyes
Targeted, trod like Spring.”

W.B. Yeats book The Winding Stair and Other Poems

Quarrel In Old Age http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1567/, st. 2
The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1933)

Spring

“The Babylonian starlight brought
A fabulous, formless darkness in;
Odour of blood when Christ was slain
Made all platonic tolerance vain
And vain all Doric discipline.”

W.B. Yeats

Two Songs from a Play, as quoted from The Cycles of History http://www.yeatsvision.com/history.html

Christ